On Monday right before midnight EDT there was a Libra new moon, closing out an emotionally exhausting previous month. _I’ve been weighing what to share about the Libra new moon, because the air signs challenge our objectivity. And each time I typed a sentence about an aspect in the new moon chart, I saw my own perspective creep in. Libra helps us build a bridge of respect and rapport with each other. It challenges us to see different sides. And so I typed and then erased so many words these last two days. I just wasn’t sure they were universal enough. I didn’t know what would help._I can use more Libra energy. I naturally have tons of the opposite energy in my chart. I’m oriented to Aries action, independence and crisis. I can drive myself and the people around me a little bit too hard. _The past couple of days I’ve noticed civility and humor creep in: Someone opening a door for me, students calling me Mrs. Jones, a little boy karate chopping the air in my direction as he and his Mom cross in front of my car – just in case. Simple signs of interaction, drawing me out of my own head. I needed these after a Virgo month of scrupulous introspection, of trying to do things just-right. I feel some Libra ease set in. Amy, you can breathe._But that’s just me, and this month that’s really the point. The air signs represent open-mindedness. And so I don’t know the ways that you can get stuck, too, but this month offers an invitation to balance. This month is a chance to challenge patterns of thought, speech, and relating. Can we carry the mutable – changing – quality of Virgo forward and add in the cardinal new start? How would it heal us to begin again?_This month isn’t entirely comfortable. Because Venus, the ruler of Libra, is now retrograde in Scorpio, the past informs this cycle, as does the mysterious, the psychologically powerful and complex. In this cycle we try to find the outer expression that reflects our honest inner selves right now, allowing that we’re a complicated stew of paradox. And so any practice that helps us make peace with ourselves can keep us from being too explosive and reactive. We’re working some things out. And Venus’s square to Mars symbolizes that we’ll be compelled to act. But it takes some effort not to act on auto-pilot, driven by past trauma or rejection. _In Sweden last week a little girl pulled a pre-Viking era sword from a lake. I wish that image were just tremendous, but it’s complicated, too. This month reminds us to enter those murky waters, but carefully. We can become the best or the worst of what we’ve seen and experienced. _There’s so much more to say, but this month I have to remind myself that I don’t have to be the one to say it. I’m working on listening, too.

The moon is in the mutable air sign of Gemini and the sun is in the mutable earth sign of Virgo. At 10:37 p.m. EDT they’ll square each other. A square is a tense aspect that can prod us to resolution.

A Gemini moon can represent a mood of distraction – jumping from one thing to another, the eternal child or student never maturing or taking the reins to teach. That’s not a knock on Geminis. That’s an energy we all have inside us, represented by today’s Gemini moon. If we’ve been avoiding a commitment that would actually be good for us, that’s the tension in today’s sky: Hey, focus. It doesn’t mean we won’t have other options. It just means it’s time to come forward in one specific way. In a sense we’re trading some freedom for some agency, picking what’s more important to us.

Virgo can represent that part of us that always finds something the matter. It can also be the part of us that takes on a subservient role. It feels good to solve a problem or help someone. But taken to an extreme, Virgo can become invisible, either because we don’t think we measure up or because we think someone else’s needs are more important than ours.

Gemini and Virgo can collude: Don’t come forward in this one way because someone else can do it better. Or keep doing this hard thing for someone who doesn’t appreciate it because that’s easier than speaking up. Make sure you really worry.

If we resemble those statements, the tension in the sky could nag us today. It’s time to let some of that go.

The blessing of the mutable signs is that they remind us that nothing is permanent. Time is fluid and so are we. If we’ve been stuck in a way of thinking or behaving, today can remind us that there’s more to explore. We all have resources. We have options and skills. We're surrounded by creative solutions.

Gemini and Virgo are both ruled by Mercury, the planet of noticing and sharing, by our words or by what we do.

Today our restlessness can reveal what needs adjustment. The quarter moon forces some resolution of last month’s Leo new moon. We had something to say and do then, that might not have been obvious to us yet. Today it can come to us in a whisper or a shout.

Today the earth will shade the full Aquarian moon for several hours, and these are some of the questions I've been pondering:

Thinking of eclipses in terms of entrances or exits, what is it I might want in my life that I've never had, or what might I be ready to end ?

We all filter the light we receive from others. How does my particular filter work? Does it protect me enough from what might overpower me? Does it protect me too much from the light and positive input of others? How comfortable am I with attention -- both giving and receiving?

Has earth energy -- patience, stability, practicality, rootedness ever bolstered me against the extremes of fire and air -- impatience and worry ? In what's truly important to me, do I have both roots and flowers? Has any attachment to earth qualities kept me back from really owning and expressing my passion and individuality, or stopped me from taking a risk? What are my usual responses to conflict or crisis?

Every full moon is a chance to become aware of the projections in our lives -- to see and heal our relationship to Other, to pull back some of the projection and see ourselves in everything. This lunar eclipse amplifies the opportunity. Who really impresses me? Who really stands out to me as a genius or a star? I'm closer to them than I think. That also goes for the other side: The people who rub me the wrong way or offend me. We're made of the same stuff, too. How can releasing some of those projections bring me closer to love, power, and right action? Where do I need defenses, and where do I just need boundaries? And when and with whom can I just be comfy and fluid, creative, and whole?